This is a partner-pair speaking activity for intermediate level learners of English that provides fun, repeated practice of country name vocabulary. It is ideal for providing learners with an opportunity to practice using moderately complex language to describe different levels of interest.
The two partners in each partner-pair work together, taking turns being Participant 1 and Participant 2. For each round, Participant 1 begins by drawing 1 card from the Secret Card Deck.
Then, Participant 2 asks questions (using the provided Core Vocabulary Words and Sentences / Sentence Patterns) and systematically crosses off possibilities on the provided Survey Info Table until only one option remains.
Prerequisites: Students can participate fully in this Deduction Challenge with all of the activity’s available materials after memorizing/learning:
Materials Available: Currently, the following materials are ready for use.
Deduction Challenges are an excellent example of information-gap activities, which serve as communication practice exercises in both Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). These challenges provide language learners with repeated practice of important sentence patterns and topic-specific vocabulary.
Additionally, since successful completion of the Deduction Challenge task described below relies on accurately communicating information, the activity offers students an excellent opportunity to self-assess their communication accuracy and initiate error-correction themselves.
This is far more efficient and effective than students only knowing that they are making an error if an instructor points it out. It also empowers learners to seek out solutions to mistakes themselves, rather than primarily being passive receivers of teaching and error-correction.
1. Gaining basic mastery in using the following sentence patterns to successfully collect information in English:
“Are you interested in visiting _______________?”
“Are you _______________??”
2. Gaining basic mastery in using the following phrases to answer questions to communicate different levels of interest:
“Yes, I would love to visit _______________!”
“Yes, I am interested in visiting _______________.”
“I’m neutral about visiting _______________.”
3. Demonstrate successful and confident use of the following phrases:
“Yes, I am.“
“No, I’m not.”
4. Be able to pronounce and differentiate the 18 different CVC phonics for the 18 characters’ names featured in this activity.
On-Going Self-Assessment:
During each round of play, Participant 2 attempts to determine which character on the Travel Destinations Survey Info Table matches the character on Participant 1’s Secret Card, based only on Participant 1’s answers.
The 2 members of a partner-pair will be able to self-assess their own performance after Participant 2 asks “Are you _______________?” (with the character’s name spoken in the blank).
Participant 1 can then show the Secret Card and the 2 partners can check if their verbal communication was successful. If Participant 2 failed to correctly determine which character is on the Secret Card, the two partners can figure out which mistake they made and then reattempt the Deduction Challenge with a new Secret Card.
Graduation:
Learners will have achieved the Learning Goals listed above when they can consistently complete the Deduction Challenge correctly with any randomly selected Secret Card, while using the target Sentences / Sentence Patterns and Core Vocabulary Words confidently and without hesitation.
1. Introduce the Core Vocabulary Words and encourage the students to learn them.
2. Demonstrate the Deduction Challenge activity, including correct use of the Core Vocabulary Words and Sentence Patterns.
3. Allow the students to practice the Deduction Challenge repeatedly.
4. The instructor’s role is to monitor the students’ practice to ensure correct use of the activity’s Sentence Patterns.
5. When students fully achieve the activity’s Learning Goals, the instructor can then graduate the student(s) to a new learning opportunity/activity that further builds on the newly achieved learning.
Notes:
If Cheat Sheets are not utilized, students should be required to demonstrate sufficient memorization of the Core Vocabulary Words before they are approved to participate in the Deduction Challenge activity.
For classes with only 1 student, the instructor will also need to be the student’s practice partner.
1: Travel Destination Preference Cards
Each of these cards feature a different levels of interest in travel to 18 countries each of 18 characters. There is a single set of 18 cards, which are labelled Set A.
For this partner-pair activity, these cards serve as Secret Cards.
Each partner-pair participating in this activity will need only 1 Secret Card at time, to be held by Participant 1.
One set of these cards is suitable for a group of up to 18 activity participants. If there are more than 18 participants, then additional cards will need to be added to the secret card deck.
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For each round of this Deduction Challenge, Participant 1 holds onto a single Secret Card and does not show it to Participant 2 until Participant 2 has narrowed down the choices on their Survey Info Tables to just one.
2: Travel Destination Preferences Survey Info Table
The Survey Info Table provides data about a list of characters’ travel destination preferences. For this activity, all of the included 18 characters’ levels of interest in visiting 18 different countries can be displayed on one side of a single sheet of A4 or US Letter paper.
If laminated, the character rows on Survey Info Tables can be systematically crossed off with an erasable whiteboard marker. After completing a round of the Deduction Challenge, participants can simple wipe the marker marks off of the laminated surface and immediately be ready to repeat the activity.
The following Travel Destination Preferences Survey Info Table is available
Each partner-pair participating in this activity will need their own Travel Destination Preferences Survey Info Table, for use by Participant 2.
Page 1/2 of Travel Destination
Preference Cards
Page 2/2 of Travel Destination Preference Cards
Travel Destination Preferences
Survey Info Table
The Sentences & Sentence Patterns Used in this activity include everything needed to successfully complete this Deduction Challenge. While sentences can indeed be composed that would allow for the activity to be completed more efficiently, the provided sentences & sentence patterns below are specifically chosen to maximize learners’ use of the activity’s Core Vocabulary Words.
If the answerer was permitted to simply verbally list the travel preferences shown on their Secret Card, this Deduction Challenge could be completed with a single question and answer. However, by limiting Participant 1’s responses to yes/no answers, Participant 2 must compose more questions than would otherwise be necessary.
As a result, the learners can get enough repeated practice of the sentence patterns to ensure that they become retained in their long-term memory.
Standard Sentences & Sentence Patterns |
Are you interested in visiting _________________? |
Yes, I would love to visit _________________! |
Yes, I am interested in visiting _________________. |
I’m neutral about visiting _________________. Yes |
Are you _________________. Yes |
Yes, I am. / No, I’m not. Yes |
The Core Vocabulary Words listed below are all words that students should learn BEFORE attempting the Deduction Challenge described on this page.
Core Vocabulary Words To Pre-Learn | |
Materials Set A (18 Cards) | (the) Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Germany, Ghana, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, (the) Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, (the) United Arab Emirates, (the) United Kingdom, (the) United States |
Notes:
*There is also the option to provide learners with a Cheat Sheet listing all of the Core Vocabulary Words next to their images. This will allow them practice using all of the vocabulary words without needing to first memorize them. The process of learning the words can be scaffolded by first allowing students to use the Cheat Sheet, and then (once they have some familiarity) encouraging them to flip the Cheat Sheet face-down and only use it after first attempting to recall a needed vocabulary word from memory.
The following words will be used to the play this game. However, these words don’t need to be pre-taught. These words can and should be learned WHILE playing the game. The instructor’s demonstration of how to play the game will provide an opportunity to show how all of these words are used as part of useful communication sentences.
Vocabulary Best Learned in Context | |
Used With All Material Sets | about, am, are, I, in, interested, love, neutral, no, not, the, to, visit, visiting, would, yes, you |
Most of the words included on this list are hard (or virtually impossible) to depict visually on a flashcard. The optimal strategy for helping learners understand these words is to demonstrate their context/function.
This can be achieved best by using them while introducing this Deduction Challenge and then having learners use them while participating in the activity.
One of the 18 Preference Cards used as Secret Cards for the activity described on this page.
One of the 18 Preference Cards used as Secret Cards for the activity described on this page.
One of the 18 Preference Cards used as Secret Cards for the activity described on this page.